désirezvsdessinezWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“désirez” and “dessinez” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#11,397
“désirez” frequency rank
#47,278
“dessinez” frequency rank
58675
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature désirez dessinez
Definition Deuxième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de désirer. Deuxième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de dessiner.

Where the eye mixes désirez and dessinez

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. désirez runs 7 letters (CVCVCVC) against dessinez's 8 (CVCCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
désirez
8 ch
dessinez

Look-alike desk: désirez vs dessinez

A purely visual mix-up. désirez (\de.zi.ʁe\) and dessinez (\de.si.ne\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 58675, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

désirez is recorded at frequency rank #11,397, classified as averb, pronounced \de.zi.ʁe\. dessinez is at rank #47,278, tagged as averb, pronounced \de.si.ne\.

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 58675, this pair ranks #107,608 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of désirez vs dessinez

Shared letters: deisz. Private to "désirez": ré. Private to "dessinez": n.

"désirez" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC  ·  "dessinez" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • dessinez ← ddessinez · desinez · desisnez · dessienz · dessinezz · dessinnez · dessinze · dessniez

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "désirez" and "dessinez" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\de.zi.ʁe\ versus \de.si.ne\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "désirez" or "dessinez" show up more?
"désirez" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,397 in our French list, against #47,278 for "dessinez". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "désirez" and "dessinez" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "désirez" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "dessinez" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #107,608 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "désirez" and "dessinez" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dessina vs dessinez". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #107,608 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list